The Shoes of the Fisherman (1968)
I have a feeling that in 1968, this movie was a major deal. The Shoes of the Fisherman showed the intimate, intricate process of selecting a new pope after the current one’s death, and it included real footage of the coronation ceremony while splicing in footage of a properly bedecked Anthony Quinn. Devout Catholics who have an interest in the process and ceremony will probably be very interested in this movie. Modern audiences who maybe aren’t as serious about the religion will find it, as I did, incredibly boring.
The plot synopsis reveals Anthony Quinn has been released after spending decades in a POW camp, but he doesn’t act like he’s been through anything more difficult than remembering his lines. Normally, I think he’s a brilliant actor, but he must have been angry at the director because he wasn’t nearly as good as he could have been. You would think, playing a character who’s endured years of imprisonment, he’d have an underlying pain behind his eyes. You would think, playing a character who’s up for consideration to become the new pope, would have a multitude of expressions at his disposal, rather than just one that says, “I’m cold and I’m sad about it.” Whatever Tony was trying to do didn’t come across.
John Gielgud plays the pope, of course, but as he often did during his later years, he acts like he’s enormously bored and would rather be somewhere else. Laurence Olivier plays a Russian bigwig, but even his biggest fans will admit he isn’t always the best at accents. Speaking of accents, for the first half of the film, I didn’t know what kind of accent Anthony Quinn was putting on. At first I thought he was Italian, then Russian, then Spanish, then Transylvanian. By the time I was convinced he came from the land of Count Dracula, another character in the movie informed the audience he was supposed to be Ukrainian.
David Janssen takes up a good third of the movie, and this third could have easily been cut. He plays an adulterer and a reporter. His scenes are pointless, irritating, and boring. Oskar Werner plays a priest with religious doubts, but the scenes they gave him to express his opinions and spark an interesting debate were both watered down and intentionally confusing, maybe so the audience would tune out and not pay attention to this part of the story.
As you can tell, I didn’t like this movie. I appreciated the detail included with regards to the election process, but as far as the dialogue and acting, I wasn’t impressed. Catholic moviegoers might want to check out The Thorn Birds instead.
Want to watch it? Click here to watch it on ok.ru. And thanks "Juhi Thaker" for posting!
More Anthony Quinn movies here!
The plot synopsis reveals Anthony Quinn has been released after spending decades in a POW camp, but he doesn’t act like he’s been through anything more difficult than remembering his lines. Normally, I think he’s a brilliant actor, but he must have been angry at the director because he wasn’t nearly as good as he could have been. You would think, playing a character who’s endured years of imprisonment, he’d have an underlying pain behind his eyes. You would think, playing a character who’s up for consideration to become the new pope, would have a multitude of expressions at his disposal, rather than just one that says, “I’m cold and I’m sad about it.” Whatever Tony was trying to do didn’t come across.
John Gielgud plays the pope, of course, but as he often did during his later years, he acts like he’s enormously bored and would rather be somewhere else. Laurence Olivier plays a Russian bigwig, but even his biggest fans will admit he isn’t always the best at accents. Speaking of accents, for the first half of the film, I didn’t know what kind of accent Anthony Quinn was putting on. At first I thought he was Italian, then Russian, then Spanish, then Transylvanian. By the time I was convinced he came from the land of Count Dracula, another character in the movie informed the audience he was supposed to be Ukrainian.
David Janssen takes up a good third of the movie, and this third could have easily been cut. He plays an adulterer and a reporter. His scenes are pointless, irritating, and boring. Oskar Werner plays a priest with religious doubts, but the scenes they gave him to express his opinions and spark an interesting debate were both watered down and intentionally confusing, maybe so the audience would tune out and not pay attention to this part of the story.
As you can tell, I didn’t like this movie. I appreciated the detail included with regards to the election process, but as far as the dialogue and acting, I wasn’t impressed. Catholic moviegoers might want to check out The Thorn Birds instead.
Want to watch it? Click here to watch it on ok.ru. And thanks "Juhi Thaker" for posting!
More Anthony Quinn movies here!